Worldwide personal and entry-level storage (PELS) shipments declined by -6.4% year over year and -13.6% sequentially, finishing the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15) with 17.6 million units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). Shipment values declined along with unit shipments, down -11.6% from a year ago to $1.5 billion.

"Broadly speaking, the size of this market has changed little over the past two and a half years. This is partly due to competition from public cloud offerings and partly due to a fundamental shift of media consumption preferences," said Jingwen Li, Research Analyst, Storage Systems. "It's important to note, however, that there are still untapped growth opportunities within this market. Personal and entry level NAS, for example, would benefit greatly from an increased level of marketing programs focused on building awareness."

Worldwide Personal and Entry-Level Storage Shipment Value, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, First Quarter 2015 (shipment value in $ million)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal and Entry Level Storage Tracker, May 2015

During the first quarter of 2015, dual interface products grew at a significant rate of 56.7% year over year, albeit off a small base. USB/Thunderbolt and USB/WiFi offerings contributed most of the growth of this category and continued to benefit from a shift away from eSATA, FireWire, and Thunderbolt-only offerings.

During the same period, HDD vendors continued to increase their share in total PELS units shipped, gaining 0.8 percentage point year over year to grow to 78.8% market share. Mainstream non-HDD vendors dominated the entry-level storage segment, but lost market share to HDD vendors. In 1Q15, HDD vendors gained 13.2 percentage points from a year ago to represent 23.2% of the entry-level storage market.